BUFFALO, New York - We topped off our two-day trip to Buffalo with a hearty ethnic meal.

No, not pierogi, or bratwurst or even pasta-and-meatballs.

Instead, we savored Burmese noodles, spicy Somali chicken and even Ethiopian coffee at the West Side Bazaar (25 Grant Street) last summer. It was a taste of the new Buffalo - a city undergoing a cultural and physical revival, where Burmese milk tea and Polish pierogi add flavor, where abandoned grain elevators are being repurposed for art installations, where once desolate areas have become home to food-trucks and microbreweries, where world-class museums and architecture coexist with an industrial history finally being embraced.

The West Side Bazaar was the finale to two fast-paced days, and the first of two recent trips to Buffalo. Previously, I had only passed through the city on my way to Niagara Falls. I wish I had stopped earlier. Though many people had told me Buffalo was just like "a smaller Cleveland," it really isn't. Yes, both cities are living a similar Rust Belt comeback story, both have growth in urban cores, and both are seeing once rundown areas become hot again.

But they are quite different cities in their very bones. As the terminus of the Erie Canal and once the largest grain port in the world, Buffalo was an extremely wealthy city in its heyday. This money led to many of the world's most famous architects making their mark.

Most impressive for any architecture buff is the Frank Lloyd Wright Martin House Complex (125 Jewett Parkway), the epitome of Wright's prairie style. The sprawling 1903 house was designed for businessman Darwin Martin, who made his fortune working for the Larkin Soap Company. It's a breathtaking example of Wright's rethinking of the closed-in Victorian way of living, all the more so because it is still nestled on a residential street dominated by painted Victorian ladies. From the built-in dining table and hidden bookcases to the amazing conservatory with its replica of "Nike (Winged Victory)," it's a must-see for any Buffalo visitor. The house is currently undergoing a $50 million restoration, which is nearly finished. It's one of several Wright houses in Buffalo, the other house open to the public being the Graycliff summer estate.

Graycliff, 20 miles southwest of Buffalo on the shores of Lake Erie, was the Martin family's summer house. It's worth the drive - a lovely one down the coast- for FLW fans and devotees of American history. Currently undergoing its own restoration, Graycliff is not as far along as the Martin House. Interiors are unfinished, though all major structural work and floors have been restored and plans are underway for the inside of the three-building complex built between 1926-31.

Reine Hauser, executive director of the Graycliff Conservancy, says they hope to have the inside restored within a year. Now, it's a fascinating look at Wright's progress in his vision of a structure's harmony with its environment, as well as the rigorous process of restoration from a Piarist Fathers home back to the way Wright intended.

The trip to the 29,000-square-foot Martin house in the city also gives visitors a chance to see another uniquely Buffalo feature: the remarkable Frederick Law Olmsted system of parks and parkways that flows through the city. These lovely oases were meant to show "how the burgeoning American industrial city could be made livable," said biographer Witold Rybczynski. They certainly do.

Other manmade wonders that attract travelers from around the world to the eastern shores of Lake Erie include Louis Sullivan's ornate, rose-colored Guaranty Building, the graceful lines of Eliel and Eero Saarinen's modernist Kleinhans Music Hall and the gorgeous art deco Buffalo City Hall.

I had been told I needed to see the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1285 Elmwood Ave.) while visiting Buffalo. But honestly, coming from the home of the world-class Cleveland Museum of Art, I wasn't excited about the idea. I'm glad I was persuaded. The museum has a world-class collection of modern and contemporary art. Gasp after gasp ensued as we walked the hall, barely believing one small museum could have so many modern masterworks, from Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso,Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, and Alexander Rodchenko. Unlike many museums, the Albright-Knox does not collect any one artist in depth, instead focusing on a survey of modernism. The result is the best art history class, ever.

One of the best music history classes, at least when it comes to jazz, can be found a few miles away at the excellent Colored Musician's Club Jazz Museum (145 Broadway). Located inside the historic building that housed the groundbreaking black musicians Local 533, formed in 1917, the lower floor is a museum dedicated to not only local Buffalo musicians, but also greats like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Lena Horne and Della Reese, who would stop in the second floor private club (and onetime speakeasy) for impromptu sessions as they passed through town, when Buffalo was one of the biggest cities in the country. The club, now open to the public, still does weekly concerts, and this summer will celebrate the 80th anniversary at this location with a street-festival/concert on July 26. See http://www.coloredmusiciansclub.org/museum.html for more details.

More local history can be explored at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Natural Historic Site (641 Delaware Ave.). Operated by the National Parks service, it sounds like the kind of place you'd go on a school field trip ... if you're lucky. The fascinating museum is in the house where Teddy Roosevelt took the oath of office on Sept. 14, 1901 after William McKinley was assassinated. The museum recreates that fateful day and the era of the industrialists. But it does much more. By focusing on Roosevelt and the key issues of the era - corruption in business, the rights of workers, the rise of Communism, women's and African-American rights, and conservation - the museum is a lively, still very relevant time capsule.

But you can't explore a city just through its museums. Topping off the presidential museum with a visit to The Founding Fathers Pub (75 Edward Street), one of Buffalo's coolest bars, was the perfect nightcap. Owner Michael Driscoll has decorated the vintage pub with pictures and memorabilia from all presidents. But that's not all. The former high school history teacher is a trivia fiend, popping up with random questions any night as he tests his customer's skill and will. Plus, there are free nachos and popcorn in the bar.

Founding Fathers may have been the most unusual of Buffalo's pubs, but it had some competition on our summer visit. The restored Ulrich's 1868 Tavern (674 Ellicott Street) is the city's oldest pub, built in, yes, 1868. New windows and a restored bar in the front of the tavern today face out on Buffalo's growing medical district, but besides that, little has changed here. The 1868 still serves German-American food in the parlor and small-batch brews on tap.

Not quite as old but still rich in history is the Anchor Bar (1047 Main Street), ground zero for one of Buffalo's most famous exports: wings!

The Anchor Bar's fame goes back to 1964, when Teresa Bellissimo decided to whip up a late-night snack in her bar for her son, Dominic, and some of his friends. She took some chicken wings - then a poverty food used mostly for soup stock - deep fried them with some spicy cayenne pepper and sauce, and served them with a side of bleu cheese to cool the heat. Today, wing lovers from around the world line up all day every day for the hot and spicy treat.

Less touristy, but not that much less busy is Larkin Square (745 Seneca Street), one of the biggest success stories of Buffalo's comeback. The once bustling industrial area around the 1912-built Larkin Terminal Warehouse had been mostly abandoned in recent years, until developer Howard Zemsky saw potential. He restored several of the buildings and built an outdoor gathering square.

Larkin Square is now home to Food Truck Tuesdays (resuming this week), as well as weekly summer concerts and artisan markets.

Yet another example of Buffalo's comeback can be seen in the aptly named Resurgence Brewing (1250 Niagara Street). Located on the mostly industrial Niagara Street, Resurgence opened last summer with a sprawling warehouse and sleek modern bar and beer garden serving local brews such as the spring loganberry wit and sweet sponge candy stout. The night we visited it was packed with millennial Buffalonians and others sipping, laughing and taking in the cool brews and atmosphere.

An equally young and hip crowd can be found at one of Buffalo's trendiest new eateries, the sleek - very dark, and very crowded - Buffalo Proper (33 Franklin Street). The artisan cocktail bar plus nouveau American kitchen has been named one of Open Table's Top 100 restaurants in the U.S. - for good reason. From the kicky Franklin Street cocktail - Cocchi Americano, Rittenhouse Rye, absinthe rinse, vanilla infused Peychaud's Bitters, and lemon oil - to the Mac Daddy noodles with duck confit to the slow roasted pork with kraut and barley - it's a wonderful taste of new Buffalo.

For a less crowded experience, a trip to the Allentown Historic District might fit the bill. Just north of downtown, Allentown reminded me of Tremont crossed with Haight-Ashbury - hippie boutiques, bookstores, gay-friendly shops, trendy pizza and sub shops, galleries, antique stores and arts venues such as the Allendale Youth Theatre and Kleinhans Music Hall. We enjoyed a beer at the Old Pink (223 Allen Street) - a divey local favorite known for its steak sandwiches, cool DJs and jukebox. Artfully painted with Van Gogh-ish snowflakes outside and graffiti inside, it was once known as the Pink Flamingo. Today it has no sign, hence the Old Pink moniker.

Allentown's newest location, opened in April, has signs to spare though. The zingy, quirky Allen Street Poutine (242 Allen Street) has a flashy retro sign worthy of Las Vegas, and savory poutine - a French Canadian dish of fries, gravy and cheese curds - worthy of Montreal. But I doubt the Quebecois serve pierogi topped poutine.

Pierogi, of course, is a Buffalo mainstay - much like Cleveland. Usually, though, it's not served with cheese curds.

On my visit last summer, I went in search of this most Buffalonian food. I wasn't just in search of Polish food, however. I wanted to experience the true Polish flavor of Buffalo's old Polish 'hood, Polonia, the birthplace of Dyngus Day in America. I knew just the man to ask for a tour - Eddy Dobosiewicz, founder of Buffalo's Dyngus Day. It was Dobosiewicz who first inspired DJ Kishka to bring the Polish day to Cleveland six years ago, after he ventured to New York for the fest that goes back to the 1960s.

Dobosiewicz took us to Polonia, where many of the city's Polish residents once lived.

Like Slavic Village, Polonia has largely been deserted by the Poles, except on Sundays when they return to area churches like the imposing 1873 -built St. Stanislaus. Or on Dyngus Day, when thousands line the streets and pour into bars like the R&L Lounge, where octogenarians Ronnie and Lottie Pikuzinski serve up thousands of homemade pierogi. There was no line the day we visited - though Friday nights can be hopping as suburbanites from across town come for Lottie's fish fry. We had Lottie's full attention as she regaled us with stories of old Polonia as we sipped on a Zweig. No pierogi were ready that afternoon, though, so we took a raincheck for another day.

No worries, though. We had heard of a place where we could grab a bit of Buffalo flavor: the West Side Bazaar.